A PENSIONER who barricaded himself in his home with furniture after suffering delusions that his neighbours wanted to harm him took a fatal drugs overdose.

Seventy-one-year-old bachelor John Connor was discovered dead in bed at his home in Runnymede Gardens, Widnes, surrounded by dozens of tablets and an empty pill bottle, an inquest at Warrington heard.

His sister-in-law and housing association staff had to force open his front door because terrified Mr Connor had barricaded it with a sofa, armchairs and an exercise bike.

His sister-in-law, Maureen Connor, of Harris Street, Widnes, told the court Mr Connor had suffered from severe depression and in recent years had developed paranoid delusions. He had been in hospital twice in a psychiatric unit.

She said: 'He had become very paranoid and was convinced that a white van was going to run him over. We spoke every day but he had taken to barricading his front door because he was worried people were trying to get him.

'Two days before he was found dead he telephoned and asked me to come over. He was very depressed but he wouldn't let me call the doctor. When I called around he met me at the door and said I should put a towel around my face because people were trying to gas him.

'After an hour he rallied round a bit and he seemed convinced that he was safe. The following day I called and received no answer.'

The next day Mrs Connor received a call from housing association staff and she rushed to her brother-in-law's flat.

She sobbed as she described how she found Mr Connor's lifeless body in bed with the duvet pulled up around his neck.

She said: 'As soon as I saw the tablets on the floor I knew what he had done. I think he was really, really frightened. I think he had just had enough.'

Pamela Featherstone, the estate manager at Runnymede Court, revealed that Mr Connor had become obsessed with being run down by a white van. In fact, the van belonged to a neighbour at the sheltered housing block and was regularly parked outside Mr Connor's kitchen window.

She said: 'He believed his neighbours were out to harm in but, on the contrary, everyone here wanted to help him.

'He had barricaded himself in before, but after speaking to him he promised not to do it again.'

A pathology report showed Mr Connor had died as a result of a cardiac arrest brought on by a drugs overdose.

North Cheshire coroner Nicholas Rheinberg recorded a verdict of suicide.

He said: 'It is clear that Mr Connor took his own life while the balance of his mind was disturbed.'